Dual Image
by Lovely-Madness-13
Summary: Aelita's powers have been acting strange lately, and after an unsettling occurrence in Lyoko, things get even stranger. But before it can get better, things get worse. Much worse. This is the first part in my XANA's Daughter series.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! This is the first section in a three- part series called XANA's Daughter. It features- and stars, in later chapters- my OC Villainess Magenta. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you enjoy it!

"High school. Oh, the madness. Hormones and homework, never a good mix, right?"  
"Heh. Yeah, Odd, try adding 'save the world' to that, and you might, just might, understand what real madness is."  
"Oh, come on, Yumi." A sigh, a roll of purple eyes in the direction of the comment. When the commenter, a girl with jet black hair and a small smirk on her face, simply shrugged, the eye roller glanced to his left, at the brown-haired boy currently trying to ignore the conversation. "Wasn't you who couldn't stop being a hero, Ulrich?"  
Ulrich rolled his eyes back at the purple-eyed, purple clad boy next to him. "Sure beats studying for math class."  
"No wonder you're failing," Yumi joked, lobbing her now empty can of soda at him. Ulrich caught it, tossed at Odd's head instead.  
"Hey!" Odd winced as the can hit his forehead and the other two sniggered. "Can I get a break?"  
"Talking about a break," Yumi interjected suddenly, looking at Ulrich. "Have either of you heard from Jeremie or Aelita lately?"  
Ulrich blinked, and looked at his roommate. "Uh...not since breakfast."  
"Princess mentioned something about trying out a new program Einstein came up with," Odd explained, using nicknames for the two other teens in question. Glancing back at Yumi, he noticed the small grin on her face. "What?"  
Yumi shrugged. "They've been hanging out together a lot lately."  
Ulrich raised an eyebrow. "And this is any different from normal because...?"  
Yumi rolled her eyes and sighed, shaking her head. "You guys don't notice anything!" Still shaking her head, she turned and walked off. Odd and Ulrich looked at each other, nonplussed.

Half a mile and a world away, a pink-haired girl looked up at a grey, digital sky. She smiled slightly, cocking her head to one side.  
"Are you sure this will work, Jeremie?"  
Through the sky, back on earth, Jeremie fiddled nervously with his glasses as he stared at the displays on the massive computer screen in front of him.  
"No," he answered honestly, his fingers flickering over the keyboard confidently even as his nerves faltered. "But even if it doesn't, you'll be alright, Aelita, I've made sure of that."  
Even though he couldn't see her fully, Jeremie could hear the smile in her voice as she answered, "I would never doubt that, Jeremie. I know how hard you've worked on this." Jeremie blushed but ignored it. He had far more important things to concentrate on then mentally celebrating the compliment she had paid him.  
"You've worked just as hard, Aelita," he replied, then began to type in the files to start the program. "Now, Aelita, close your eyes and focus on something."  
On Lyoko, Aelita turned obeyed, still smiling. No matter how many years they had been doing this, excitement still raced through her at the idea of discovering something new. She could hear in it Jeremie's voice that he was just as nervous as she was. Forcing the thoughts of nerves- and the genius currently gently guiding her vocally from a world away- out of her head, she took a breath, and imagined what she knew was in front of her- the huge empty plain of the Mountain Region, stretching out before her.  
"Can you see it in your mind?"  
"Clearly. It's hard to forget, Jeremie."  
A pause- Aelita could clearly imagine Jeremie rolling his sky blue eyes at her teasing sarcasm- and then Jeremie said, "Good. I'm gonna start the program now, okay? Three...two...one..."  
Aelita heard the click of the enter key echo in her own ears. And waited.  
And waited.  
"Uh...Jeremie? What exactly am I supposed to feeling?"  
"What are you feeling?"  
"Absolutely nothing."  
Jeremie sighed out an annoyed breath. "Again? What...what am I missing?" Aelita relaxed her body, opening her eyes again.  
"Jeremie, don't worry about it," she said, hoping her voice sounded soothing. She could already hear the frustration in his voice. He would start berating himself any second now, she knew it. "Jeremie-"  
Anything she was about to say was cut off by a gasp as pain suddenly exploded in her back. Aelita cried out, falling forward. Catching herself, she stood back up, spinning around at her attacker.  
"Aelita?"  
"Jeremie, I'm not alone here!" Green eyes wide with surprise, confusion and fear, Aelita backed up, spheres of pink energy in her hands. The single creeper moved forward, it's ugly head to one side as if as confused as she was.  
"What? Nothing shows up on the screen! What is it?"  
"A creeper, but..." Aelita's narrowed, slowing down. Was the thing going to attack her at all? XANA's monsters usually never hesitated.  
"But? Aelita, what's going on?" Panic pitched Jeremie's tenor voice up at least an octave.  
For a moment, girl and monster stared at each other. Then, suddenly, the creeper lunged at her.  
"Energy field!" Aelita cried out, but the energy attack missed. Instead, the creeper collided with her, knocking her back against the ground.  
"Aelita?"  
Without thinking, Aelita let out a sound, half shout, half sung note and another energy field flew from her fingers. It hit the face of the creeper, only a few feet from hers, straight on. Aelita winced, expecting the monster to explode.  
Instead, to her shock, it simply vanished.  
"Aelita?"  
Jeremie's panicked voice echoed in her ears, but it took a moment for Aelita to register. Still staring at the place where the creeper had been seconds earlier, Aelita stood slowly.  
"I...I'm alright," she managed after a moment. "But...but that..."  
"What happened? Are you okay?"  
Aelita nodded, her heart finally slowing down to a normal speed. "Never mind. It's gone now, so, if you' d like to try again, Jeremie-"  
"No, we're done for now," Jeremie said quickly, still sounding frightened. "I'm bringing you back."  
Aelita sighed, looking over her shoulder. Perhaps that was a good idea. She couldn't shake the sudden feeling that she was being watched.


	2. Chapter 2

"Aelita?"  
Rubbing her forehead, Aelita forced her attention on the computer screen in front of her.  
"Have you defragmented the-" Realizing Jeremie was looking at her, she paused, raising her eyebrows. "Did I say that already?"  
Jeremie shook his head, still watching her. "Are you alright, Aelita?" She blinked at him, surprised.  
"Well, of course, I-" Was it just her or was the room spinning a little? She blinked again and shook her head slightly before turning to smile at Jeremie. "It's okay, I'm fine."  
Jeremie didn't look convinced. "After the attack in Lyoko...you're probably still pretty shaken up, you could take a break if you wanted to."  
Aelita stared at him. "Jeremie, that was more than two hours ago, it was just a fluke, you said yourself there were no towers-" the room started spinning a little quicker "- ac...act-tiviated. I..."  
"Aelita?" Jeremie put a hand over hers, frowning. "You're all pale, are you-" his eyes widened behind his oval glasses. "You're freezing!" He jumped out of the chair and took her hands in his, pulling her close. Her vision swimming now, a far off voice giggled happily about being so close to him. Aelita, however, barely heard it, fighting to keep her balance.  
"I...I'm just a little dizzy," she managed, her own voice sounding strange to her now. "It'll be..."  
"Come here, Aelita, please," Jeremie said quickly. "We got to get you to the infirmary. Did you just started feeling- whoa!" Despite his support, Aelita's balance failed her and she tripped into him, sending both of them crashing to the floor. Jeremie caught her as best as he could, letting his own back hit the floor the hardest. Aelita muttered something unintelligible, and Jeremie found himself hard to put to make his arms relax their gentle grip around her waist.  
Stop it, you idiot, Jeremie told himself even as the tell tale blush crept into his cheeks. Forcing himself to ignore the tingles and warmth that had set his heart to doing jigs in his chest, he pulled back and tried to help her stand.  
"I...I'm sorry...I..." How many Jeremies' were there now? Aelita blinked, trying to focus. Four, five? His hands were still resting lightly on her shoulders, and her heart was dancing happily, despite the fact her head seemed to be spinning right off her neck.  
"On second thought, you should stay here," Jeremie said softly, his voice calm and gentle. Aelita latched onto the sound, forcing her heart to calm down, and closed her eyes. "I'll call the others and they'll come help me  
get you, okay?" Aelita wasn't sure if she actually nodded in response or not, but his voice seemed to be fading off slowly. "I'll be right back, Aelita." By the time he had walked out of the room, she had fallen asleep.

Two floors under her, the huge massive tower of black and gold metal began to hiss and spark. From the depths of the machine, a soft mechanical laugh echoed. The sound grew louder, bouncing off the walls.  
Then stopped completely.  
A floor above, one of the scanners began to smoke. After a moment, as if the doors themselves were hesitant, the metal gates slide open slowly. A laugh, low, feminine, and as demented as the laugh that had echoed moments earlier in the lower chamber, spilled out into the air.

"She's dizzy?"  
"I told you, Einstein, that place smells, maybe there's gasses or something-"  
"Odd, the only gas that has ever touched that place is when you take off your shoes."  
"Hey, Ulrich, how about I take YOUR shoes and shove them in-"  
"Can we PLEASE stay on topic here?" Jeremie snapped, glaring at his friends as they hurried over the bridge. "LIke I said, she seemed fine for more than a couple hours after...after the incident-"  
"And she said the creeper just disappeared," Yumi remembered, her expression dubious. She snapped her fingers. "Just, boom, like that. No explosion, just gone."  
"Just gone," Jeremie echoed, nodding distracted before grabbing the rope to swing down into the factory. For a moment, no one answered as each of them landed and hurried toward the elevator.  
"Is it possible what happened is causing her...dizziness?" Ulrich asked. Jeremie shrugged, his hands wringing nervously.  
"I don't know, it's possible. She said the creeper almost seemed to absorb the energy field, like some sort of sponge, so"  
Odd shook his head. "But I don't get it, Einstein. How could that have happened? They've always just been deleted before. We've all watched it happen."  
"I don't know, Odd." The doors to the elevator began to slide open, and Jeremie looked at his friends. "She may have fallen asleep, we'll carry her back to the infirmary-"  
"Um, Jeremie?"  
Yumi, who had walked out ahead of the rest of them, turned back to look at the blond genius, her eyebrows raised. "Did you say you left her in here?"  
Jeremie stared at her. "She's not there?" Confused, he hurried into the super-computer room, glancing around.  
Aelita was no where to be seen.  
"Maybe she woke up and tried to walk home?" Odd suggested, walking around.  
"Call her cell phone," Ulrich said, trading a glance with Yumi.  
Jeremie nodded, trying to ignore the voices of panic that were beginning to rise in his chest. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed her number.  
A few seconds later, a loud buzzing sound made all four of them jump.  
"Oh...crap." Odd muttered on the far side of the room.  
"What?" The other three chorused.  
"Well, I found her cell phone," he muttered, his voice no longer it's usual peppy tone.  
Yumi gasped. Ulrich gulped and Jeremie's eyes widened. Then all four of them looked at each, dread in their eyes.  
"XANA."


	3. Chapter 3

She was in a forest. A real one, on earth. It was dark, twilight, the air feeling cool against her skin. She moved slowly, not bothering to wonder why she was there. She had something to do. Some purpose there. Someone to find.  
She heard sounds, animals, the far off noises of the city and the school. Her head raised. Those sounds meant humans, and she needed to find them.  
Stupid humans.  
Moving quicker, she saw the outline of the school. Huge and bricked to keep danger away from it's precious students, young humans.  
Humans were no better than animals. Her father had taught her that.  
Out of the trees now, she slid through the back door, and slammed it shut.  
Footsteps, loud and echoing in her keen hearing, thundered towards her. The room was pitch black, but she could see everything. Another door on the far end of room slid open, and a human hurried in.  
"Hey! Who are you, students aren't supposed to-"  
She smiled slightly, and lifted her hand. "Shut up." The man stared at her, then gasped as black smoke filled her palm, and thrust itself at the human.  
The smoke wrapped itself around the human's head, and the man let out a yell of terror.  
She simply smiled, stepped around him as he fell to his knees, trying to pull of the black stuff now covering his nose and mouth.  
"Thanks for opening the door for me," she murdered softly, and snapped her fingers. The smoke slowly disentangled itself from the human, who now lay quite still and silent on the floor, and slithered back into her palm. She smiled again and walked into Kadic Academy.

"She has to be there somewhere."  
His eyes threatening to close and his heart in his throat, Jeremie once again started the scan of Lyoko. The other three had went back a while ago, all promising to ask around, look in the dorms, looking anywhere they could, to find Aelita.  
Jeremie had stopped looking at the clock hours ago.  
"She's gotta...gotta be here." Fear mixed with exhaustion, and Jeremie sleepily glared at the computer. "Don't tell me 'all clear'!" He snapped at the computer, still scanning Lyoko. "She has to be there. She couldn't of just walked off on her own, not in the state she was in."  
Yeah, muttered a smug voice in his head. When was the last time you got to be that close, huh? When she was that clingy?  
"Shut it," Jeremie muttered to himself, ignore the reminder. "That doesn't matter. She would...she wouldn't ever..." Jeremie sighed, then with only last mutter, he lost the battle and slumped against the keyboard, fast asleep.

He was warm. That's the first thing he noticed. His arms wrapped around a pillow, Jeremie smiled. Nice and warm. And soft.  
The pillow moved against him, and sighed.  
Jeremie's eyes opened. And went wide.  
Aelita. Beautiful, perfect Aelita, was snuggled against him, fast asleep, her head resting against his chest. He could see her perfectly, even though his glasses weren't on. His heart jumped in his chest and suddenly all his nerves seemed to be full of sparks. She was so lovely. Not wanting to wake her up, he started to pull his hands away.  
She moved, her eyes still closed, and one small hand took his to guide it back where it had been before, on her waist. Jeremie felt his face flush. What the...  
"mmm..." She snuggled closer again.  
So perfect, muttered a voice in his head. Jeremie nodded, smiling. So beautiful. So weak. So breakable.  
Jeremie blinked, frowned. No, wait, Aelita wasn't weak. She was just as brave as any of the others.  
"Not really." Aelita nuzzled under his chin, speaking in her sleep. "Not really brave, not really strong. Just yours."  
Jeremie's eyes widened and froze. What had she just-  
"Weak and fragile and useless. But yours. All yours." She snuggled even closer, her arms snaking up to wrap around his neck. "You know that, don't you? It's all you want, right? For me to be yours, useless and foolish? Always?"  
"Aelita?" Jeremie tried to move away, but his arms wouldn't move. No, they pulled her closer even as he wanted to stop, to move away. Aelita's arms around his neck went tighter.  
"Isn't that what you want, Jeremie? Me?" Finally, her eyes slid open, and looked into his. Horror filled his heart, yet he couldn't stop holding her. Couldn't let go.  
The green was gone. Three circles, the middle filled with blood red, centered in the eyes gazing temptingly up at him.  
She smiled warmly, as if she couldn't feel him struggling, or hear his gasping pleas. "Isn't it, Jeremie?"  
He couldn't breathe, her arms were too tight around his neck, yet he still couldn't move. She was leaning closer, about to kiss him.  
"Jeremie? Isn't that what you want? Isn't it, Jeremie?"  
"Jeremie!"  
Jeremie's head shot up, his eyes flying open.  
He was still in the factory, still at the super computer. Wild-eyed, gasping for breath as if he had been strangled, Jeremie spun in his chair, fumbling for his glasses.  
Odd and Ulrich stood there, both in their pajamas, their expressions shocked.  
"What?" Jeremie snapped, still breathing heavily. "Did you find Aelita?"  
"Something werid's happening at the school," Ulrich stared, shaking his head, but Odd cut him off.  
"Einstein, somebody was murdered at Kadic" he said, his eyes still wide and hollow with fear. "Somebody's dead."

At least her head didn't hurt anymore. Actually, she couldn't feel much of anything.  
Aelita blinked slowly, blinked again. Where her eyes still closed? Where was she?  
Everything was pitch black.  
"Hello?" Instead of echoing back to her, like it should have done, her voice seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness. "Jeremie?"  
No answer, no echo. A strange, nameless fear began to creep into her hurt. Was she still in the factory? Where was Jeremie?  
"Hello?" She called again, a little louder. For a moment, there was simply silence.  
A soft laugh, unfamiliar and almost inaudible, drifted to her ears.  
Aelita's head snapped up.  
"Who's there?"  
No answer except for the sound of movement, clothing rustling as someone moved closer. Panic was reared up in her head and she tried to move.  
Pain, sudden and unexpected, burst through her. Aelita cried out and went still.  
The chuckle came again, much closer.  
"What's wrong, little sister? Don't like being bound?"  
The voice was strange, female, and somehow familiar now. Silky, soft, dangerous, mocking.  
"It's alright, little Princess, at least what's binding you now won't steal away your precious memories."  
Memories. Bound.  
XANA. The Skyphazoa. Was she on Lyoko? Aelita gasped and tried to move again. The pain burst, and she cried out, trying to fight what ever was holding her. If she could just get her energy field to work, she could blast what ever thing was holding her-  
"Now, be a good little fool and stay still." The voice was moving farther away again. "I'll say hello to your boyfriend again, shall I?"  
Aelita's eyes widened in terror. Jeremie. No.  
"Wait! Stop! Who are you?"  
Nothing, not even her own voice echoed back at her.


	4. Chapter 4

"Do you think it's part of XANA's attack?"  
For what felt like the fourteenth time, Jeremie rubbed his face in frustration and sighed.  
"I don't know, Yumi, there's no towers activated and with..without Aelita to..." he stopped, his heart wrenching at the thought of Aelita. He glanced at his watch. It was now 8:30 in the morning, and the students were gathered in the gym as the police searched the school and interviewed the staff. In a few hours, Aelita would have been missing for an entire day-  
"Jeremie, send us in."  
- where could she be? She couldn't have just-  
"Jeremie!"  
Jeremie blinked, and forced himself to concentrate on his friends. All three of them were staring at him, Odd excited, Yumi stubborn and Ulrich apprehensive.  
Jeremie glared. "What?" Lack of sleep and nerves rubbed raw did little to his mood, and the three of them just staring at him like he was an idiot didn't do much to help matters.  
"Send us in, Einstein," Odd repeated quietly, looking over his shoulder at the mass of students mingling and chattering nervously in the gym. "We can sneak out the back door. No one's paying attention-"  
"'Cept for General Jim, over there," Ulrich muttered, jerking his head. Jeremie turned, and looked as their teacher Jim Morales, big bellied and bellowing louder than ever, stalked around the gym, peaking over everyone shoulder as if expecting one of the students to be caring weapons. Jeremie rolled his eyes and looked back at his friends.  
"Are you sure? I must've run the scan over Lyoko a hundred times, and never picked up anything. It could be a trap."  
The three of them shrugged. "Big deal, Einstein," Odd said, and grinned. "Wouldn't be the first time, and we'd just trap ol' machine brain right back anyway."  
"If we don't do something soon, they might send us home until they catch the murderer," Yumi added, glancing over at Jim again. "And then we'd all be in trouble."  
"They won't find the murderer," Jeremie muttered, his gaze now on their escape route. "Not if it was who we think it was."  
"Exactly," the other three echoed. Jeremie looked at them, and for a moment all four teens locked gazes.  
"For Aelita," Yumi said softly, just as Ulrich and Odd said "For Princess."  
Jeremie just nodded, his head raising slowly. He glanced around once more, then looked back at them.  
"Lets go."

How long Aelita sat there in the darkness, she didn't know. She could only count the seconds by her own breathing. No sound, no movement. Nothing. No smells. She couldn't even feel what she was sitting on, or what was binding her.  
"This is going to get really old, really fast," she muttered to herself, and closed her eyes. It was just as dark there, inside her own head. She took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down.  
Jeremie. His face drifted over her closed eyelids. Her heart clenched, missing him desperately. Where was he? What had the woman who had spoken to her earlier done to him? Who was she? What was she?  
A chill went down Aelita's spine at the thought of Jeremie or the others being in the clutches of some strange new enemy.  
"That's what happened to you, you idiot. You're sitting here in the gods-curst dark while Jeremie and the others could be...be in pain." Or worse, hissed a panicked voice in the back of her head. She closed her eyes. "Move. MOVE, curse you."  
Aelita's head raised slowly and she clenched her fists. Very slowly, she moved her shoulders. No pain.  
Determination filled her, and cautiously, Aelita began to twist, fighting the bonds. Time stopped, and the only thoughts in her mind where to get free, to find Jeremie.

"Where should we start looking?"  
Jeremie's fingers flew over the super-computer keyboard, his mind already whirling in fear for his friends, for Aelita and almost desperate determination to find her.  
"We'll start in the forest sector. Aelita used to go there a lot when she was sad, she might have gone there to hide if...if something happened." If she had gotten to the scanner in time, warned a voice in his head, but Jeremie ignored it, and began the process to send Yumi, Ulrich and Odd into Lyoko.  
"I'm sending you guys your vehicles once in, you'll move faster that way."  
"Chill, Einstein," Odd called over the intercom as the scanner doors closed. "We'll find Princess."  
Jeremie didn't answer. His heart, clenching so tightly in his chest it hurt, threatened to burst.  
"For Aelita," he whispered, and sent his best friends into a virtual hell.

Something changed.  
Aelita's eyes flew open. Something had moved. The ground, the air shifted slightly.  
Voices?  
What ever bound her had loosened just enough to let her move her wrists without the pain blasting her. Now if she could only move a little more-  
"Well, well, well, we've company, little sister."  
Aelita's head snapped up. That voice again. Close, almost in her ear. She gasped and forgot not to struggle hard against her bonds. As the pain shot through her head, the voice chuckled.  
"Seems like someone's trying find you. Well...I'll just have to go and say hello."  
Stop. Stop her. Through the pain, Aelita's heart and mind flew faster than ever, desperately. Stop her. Talk.  
"Who- who are you?"  
The voice laughed softly again. "Don't worry your little useless head about that, little sister. You'll find out soon enough."  
Useless. The taunt bit into her heart, but Aelita ignored it.  
"If you're going to leave me here, XANA, then-"  
The voice burst out laughing. "XANA? Oh, that's interesting. Really, you little fool, is that the only thing you can think of? My father...well, he won't need to concern himself with you and your pathetic human friends anymore."  
Aelita's eyes widened against the darkness. "You- your father?"  
More laughter, fading away now. "Ta ta for now, little sister. I'll give a kiss to your boyfriend for you, alright?"  
"No! Don't you touch him, you-"  
The voice just laughed, the sound horrible in her ears. Aelita shut her eyes, trying shut the sound out, but it only echoed louder. Finally, the fury, pain, and terror got the better of her. Throwing her head back, Aelita let out a scream, a long loud held note of pure fury and terror. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Aelita thought she heard other voices, quiet and strange, screaming, singing with her.  
Lightening blasted, pink and neon, from her finger tips. Aelita didn't see it, her eyes still shut. The light flashed, then vanished. Aelita slumped against her bonds, her head now pounding.


	5. Chapter 5

"Did you guys hear something?" Odd, higher than the other two as they all sped through the forest region, glanced down at his friends. "A weird kinda shriek?"  
"Was it your stomach?" Ulrich called back, smirking up at his roommate from his buzzing overbike. "After all the beans you ate at lunch?"  
"Ha, ha, very funny, Ulrich," Odd retorted. "I'm serious. I thought I heard something."  
"Jeremie, did your scan pick up anything?"  
"No." Even over the intercom into Lyoko, they could hear his frustrated sigh. "Nothing. But Odd, you do got the best hearing of the group, where do you think it came from?"  
On Lyoko, the purple cat-boy grinning triumphantly at his two friends. "Not sure, Einstein," he answered when the other two ignored him. "I'll keep my ears open though."  
"You do that," Yumi replied wryly, "but keep your eyes open too, loud mouth. Before you run into the tower."  
"What- whoa!" Odd glanced up, swerved, and nearly missed smashing directly into a tree. Yumi and Ulrich laughed, and sped ahead, racing to get to the tower that was shimmering only a few feet away.  
On Earth, Jeremie moved closer to the screen, his heart thudding painfully. They were done with the forest region, four more to go. Where was she?  
"Please..." Sweat beading on his forehead, but he ignored it, watching as the three on Lyoko moved into the tower and started through to the desert sector. "Please let them find her. Aelita..."  
Thud.  
Jeremie's head jerked up. What... Listening for a second and hearing nothing, he shook his head. Imagination.  
Clang. Thud thud This time he spun around his chair, looking around the massive chamber of the supercomputer. He opened his mouth to call out then, curst the stupid idea. What if it was a kid, running from the murder case at the school? They'd be discovered. Quietly, Jeremie got up from the chair and padded over towards the ladder. As silently as he could, he began to climb, listening all the while.  
There- another clang, louder and closer than other. Someone was definitely somewhere in the pipe room behind the wall, poking around. His heart thudding in his ears, Jeremie couldn't hear his friends call out to him. Odd was yelling something about hearing shrieks again, but the calls fell on deaf ears.  
Then he got to the top of the ladder, and looked over the ledge into the next room.  
And forgot everything.  
"Aelita?"  
The pink haired girl glanced up just as she tripped over another metal pipe. Her eyes widened, and her face broke into a wide, brilliant smile.  
"Jeremie!"  
Jeremie climbed down the ladder on the other side as fast as he could, and turned to face her. "Aelita, what-"  
The next second, his arms were full of her, shivering and cuddled close to him, her face buried against his chest. Her shoulders began to shake, and he heard her breath catch in little sobs. His heart clenched, his face burning up in a neon blush.  
"Hush..." Nearly desperate to make her calm down, to make her feel safe, he laid his chin against her hair and rubbed her back. "Aelita, it's okay, you're all right now." He breathed in, sighing slightly. Metal and musk filled his nose and he blinked, surprised. How long had she been down here, stuck in the factory? Long enough to smell like the machines around her, but how did she get down there in the first place? About to ask just that, he opened his mouth, pulling back to look at her. To his surprise and dismay, she only clung tighter to him. His heart clenched and he pulled her closer, longing to make the tears stop. After a moment, however, she spoke, so quietly, he could barely hear her.  
"Jeremie..I"m so sorry...I was so scared down here, I shouldn't have wandered off." Her voice, muffled against her shirt, sounded husky, as if she had been crying for a long time. The thought only made him feel worse, and he rubbed her shoulders gently. "It's my fault, I felt so strange, and I couldn't find you...I should've just stayed..."  
"It's okay, Aelita," Jeremie murmured, cutting her off gently. "I should have called the others, and stayed with you. I just hope it wasn't the program that did that to you, I-"  
Aelita shook her head against his chest, still not taking her face away. "I don't think so, Jeremie, don't blame yourself. Maybe if you showed me the program again, we could work on it again-"  
Jeremie's head came up. "I forgot! I sent the others to Lyoko to look for you, I gotta call them back, I-"  
Aelita looked up at him. "They-they're in Lyoko?" For a moment, she looked terrified, then after a second, she seemed to calm down, and nodded slowly. "Well, we should hurry then, in case XANA starts another attack."  
"Another?" Jeremie looked at her. "Did you hear something?"  
She blinked, then smiled slowly at him, her eyes still a little red from weeping. Despite everything, the smile made Jeremie's heart jump slightly. Had she ever looked at him like that before? Almost like cat to a mouse. "No, I mean the creeper, of course." She smiled innocently up into his face, then the smile faded slightly. "Was there another attack, Jeremie?"  
A shudder went down his spine as he helped her climb the ladder. "Yes. I think. We think. All we know is that one of the janitors was found dead in the closet that had a back door to the forest, and there were no marks on his body what so ever. All the students got stuck in the gym. We snuck out to...to look for you."  
Aelita smiled again, and as they reached the top of the wall, leaned over and kisses him lightly in the cheek. "Guess you didn't have to look that hard after all, Jeremie. I was right here." Her eyes met his, and her smile widened. "I'll always be right here."


	6. Chapter 6

Her head hurt again, but Aelita didn't care. She forced her eyes open against the darkness, and tried again. Humming softly, she watched as pink sparks darted around her fingers, flickering like a gutting candle. After a second, the light went brighter, and Aelita held her breath, hoping.  
"Come on, you idiot."  
Little fool. Little Sister. Useless.  
Words hissed by that horrible voice in the darkness whispered into her mind, and the light faltered. "Come on," she snapped through gritted teeth, furious at herself. "Fight, like you used to. You don't need a program to get stronger, you idiot, just do it. DO IT!"  
At her shout, the energy field brightened, almost blindingly. Aelita took a breath of triumph, gasping-  
-and the light went out.  
Despair and frustration built up in her heart, and Aelita let out a scream of frustration, loud and high, her fists clenched, her back arching against the pain of her bonds. Suddenly, blindingly, neon pink energy blasted from her hands, lighting up the entire area. Aelita's eyes flew open, the scream ended.  
Somewhere in the back of her head, voices, soft and quiet and triumphant now, murmured. They sang softly, but she didn't know the words. How long at it been since she had heard them, had she sung with the voice of world itself in her head.  
Voices. Aelita blinked, glancing around her. In her ears now? Listening, she heard nothing, and pushed it out of her mind.  
Now she could see where she was, thanks to the steady flicker of light still dancing around her fingertips. She looked around, down at herself and gasped. Whatever had been holding her was gone. She bit her lip, warily moved her arms, folded her legs up. No pain. Nothing.  
She was free.  
That thought, that realization, hit her harder than any fury and horror from before.  
She had to find Jeremie, to get back to Earth. Standing slowly, she narrowly missed bumping her head on the low ceiling. If that's what one could call it any way.  
"I'm in the ice sector," she realized, not noticing that she was still talking to herself. The pink light bounced dully off the ice, making the whole cave sparkle. "But...how do I get out?" Then, slowly, a smile eased onto her lips. "Well...that was a stupid question." Closing her eyes, she put a hand to the nearest ice wall, and let her mind go, listening instead of the voices inside the ice. They whispered, and she sung softly back, her voice and their voices echoing in a strange duet in her ears and in her head.  
After a moment, as the voices shifted in pitch, she stopped, and opened her eyes. Light, pale and soft blue, filtered in through the hole she made in the cave wall. Being careful not to slip on the ice, Aelita moved towards the opening-  
and froze.  
There they were again, voices, coming from somewhere. Not in her head though, she realized. In her ears. Listening closely, she held her breath.  
"-hasn't answered in at least ten minutes, you think he's okay?"  
"Maybe he fell asleep, the guy barely got any sleep last night."  
Aelita's eyes went wide. That was Yumi. And Odd. She dashed out of the cave- and almost head long into Ulrich as he swerved to miss hitting the cave she had come out off.  
"Aelita?"  
Ulrich slammed on the breaks, the bike spinning wildly. Yumi spun sharply on her overwing, her eyes wide. Odd, above them, yelped and did a nose dive to pull up inches from the ground. Then, as one, all three of them jumped off their vehicles and caught the stunned pink-haired elf up in hugs.  
"Holy crap, Princess, what happened-"  
"We've been looking all over-"  
"Are you okay, what-"  
"Guys!"  
Aelita, her heart pounding with joy to see her friends again, wriggled out of their hugs and took a step back. "I'm glad to see you too, what happened?"  
Yumi raised her eyebrows. "That's what we were gonna ask you, Aelita! Did you feel any pulsations? And how'd you get in here?"  
Even in virtual form, Aelita felt a chill go down her spine. "I don't know how I got here, Yumi, I..." ashamed of her weakness the day before, she looked away. "The last thing I remember is having Jeremie say he was going to find you guys and help me get back to the school."  
"Come on, Princess," Odd said, grabbing her arm. "We've got to get you back to earth. Something crazy's going on at Kadic, but Jeremie says there's no tower activated. We need-"  
Jeremie...  
I'll say hello to your boyfriend, shall I? Give him a kiss from you...  
Ugly whispers filled the back of her mind, and Aelita winced, fright surging again.  
"Jeremie. Where is he?"  
The other three looked at each other, surprised by the sudden look of panic on her face. "Uh...he was at the super computer, but he hasn't answered-"  
Aelita shook her head. "We need to get back there. I have...have a bad feeling. Please?"  
The other's nodded.


	7. Chapter 7

"I can't wait to tell the others that you're alright! This is amazing."  
Aelita smiled up at him as they hurried over to the super computer. "No, Jeremie, the fact that you found me and saved me...that's amazing." Snuggling up to him even as they moved, she stood on her tip toes and placed another kiss on his cheek. Jeremie felt his face turn red, and tried to make his brain work over the blood rushing through his body. The kiss seemed to sink coolly into his skin, sending a shiver down his spine. Standing at the computer, however, he frowned, forgetting the chill, the tiny warning bell that had started to go off in the back of his head.  
"Wait...what...they're gone!" Sliding into the chair, he quickly began typing in the codes that would find his friends. Instead, the five sectors shimmered at him, empty. Next to him, her arms draped loosely over his shoulders, Aelita leaned over to look at the screen.  
"I"m sure they're somewhere, Jeremie. Why we're waiting, darling, why don't we try that program again?"  
Darling? Jeremie blinked in surprise as he blushed again at the endearment. She had never called him that before. Then, realizing what else she had said, he looked at her, his eyebrows raised. "You'd want to try that again? I still haven't had a chance to work out the codes, after last time and-"  
"Shhh..." Smiling, Aelita reached over and placed a cool finger tip on his lips. "Jeremie, you can do anything you wish, don't worry. Send me in, or if you still worried, I'll only go in the scanner, not into Lyoko."  
Jeremie hesitated, trying to see even though his glasses were fogging up. "Well...even if it doesn't work, you could find the others and-  
"Yes, that too," she agreed, already disentangling herself from him and backing up towards the elevator. Smiling, she held out a hand to him. "I'm a little scared to go down there myself after...after what happened..." She bit her lip for a moment, then smiled brighter at him. "Would you walk me down?"  
Unable to resist, Jeremie nodded, hating the fact his face was probably going tomato-red by now. "Oh, okay, well..."  
His back to the computer, he didn't see the scanner register as two people were devirtualized into the scanners, didn't hear the excited voices chattering. All he knew was that Aelita snuggled close to him again as they stood in the elevator. His heart pounding in his head, he wasn't sure he could move by the time they stopped at the level of the scanners. As the door opened, he looked down at the girl hugging herself close to him, a small smile on her face.  
Then he heard them.  
"Einstein! We found-"  
His head jerked up, and he saw the colorful blurs of Yumi and Odd as they started toward him.  
Then, everything froze.  
All the breath left his lungs like a fist in his gut.  
Stepping out of the middle scanner, her vivid green eyes wide with shock, was Aelita.

"J-Jeremie..." He looked unhurt. His blue eyes wide and staring behind his glasses, he looked as surprised as she felt to see her standing there. And no wonder, she thought, sick fear and disgust risking in her heart.  
There was a girl, another Aelita, wrapped around his arm like a snake on a tree. She was looking up at Jeremie, a smile on her face. Then, slowly, she turned her head, and eyed their group. The smile widened, and turned into a leer.  
"Well, well, it looks like you guys got stuck with a clone again," the Aelita with Jeremie said, her eyes meeting identical ones currently narrowed in fury and confusion. The voice, so similar to Aelita's own, struck chills down the back of her spine. The leering smile widened to a smirk, and the eyes darkened, narrowing with triumph.  
Yumi and Odd, and Ulrich, who had just stopped out of the left scanner and stopped in his tracks at the sight before him, all looked nervously from pink haired girl to the other.  
"XANA," continued the Aelita next to Jeremie. "You can give up the game. Jeremie knows I'm the real one, so..." her arms tightening around the blond boy, who seemed to have frozen to the spot. "Don't you, Jeremie?"  
For a moment, nothing moved, then slowly, Jeremie turned his head, and looked down at the girl clinging so tightly to him. "Let go."  
Never in her life had Aelita heard Jeremie's voice go so cold. The faint blush that had stained his cheeks moments ago had vanished and his face gone pale, his eyes narrowed and bright, like neon blue pinpricks.  
When the Aelita he addressed opened her mouth, smiling as if she hadn't understood what he said to her, Jeremie pulled away from her, taking a step back. His lip curled in disgust. Finally, shock and betrayal registered on that Aelita's face.  
"Jeremie- you- you can't possibly think that she-" Glancing at the dual image by the scanners, she glowered at him. "How dare you! You idiot, after all I said, don't you see, Jeremie, it's me, I'm Aelita, I-"  
"Aelita isn't cold," he said softly, taking another step back, towards the scanners. "She wouldn't call me darling, and she would never, ever be afraid to go into the scanner room by herself. She's braver and stronger than that."  
Aelita-next to the scanners- went as pink as her hair. "And actually, XANA," Jeremie continued, his eyes now rising to meet Aelita's. "Her eyes are a lot more neon that what you tried to fake. You got the hair all wrong too. And-"  
The false Aelita shocked expression slowly melted as he went on, and then suddenly, she burst out laughing. Low and throaty, and some how slightly metallic, it echoed around the chamber.  
The sound sent a shudder through all five of the Lyoko warriors, but none took a step back. "XANA?" The fake Aelita murmured as her laughter faded. "Is that really all you stupid humans can think of?"  
"Get out of here," Aelita replied softly, taking a step forward.  
Slowly, the others began to move forward, even Jeremie, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Odd spoke up, his purple eyes flashing. "Yeah, we can think of a lot of ways delete your fake digital-"  
The fake Aelita laughed again, shaking her head. She didn't even seem phased by the fury in their gazes. "Idiotic humans, you flatter me with your stupidity. XANA? I may be my father's work, but I am not him." Her eyes, once dyed to match Aelita's, paled, went white. As they stood their, gaping, circles in thin black drew themselves in a strange set of pupils, like the XANA symbol..and yet  
"You're not him?" Yumi snorted, taking another step forward. "That's impossible, XANA would never share his throne with anyone-  
"His own daughter," the monstrosity retorted, smirking. "And your downfall, darling," she added, turning back to look at Jeremie. "Isn't that what you wanted?" A shudder went through Jeremie and he took a step back as the woman reached out her hand towards him. "Remember me, darling," she whispered, her fingers inches from his face. "Remember me."  
"Don't you touch him!" Aelita shrieked, diving forward.  
A loud crash, a deep bark of female laughter, a bellow of fury from Ulrich or Yumi- and then nothing, but a blasted hole in the floor. Aelita lay, face down on the ground, the others all half way forward to help her.  
"Aelita?" Jeremie was at her side first, kneeling down. "Please...please, Princess," he whispered, tears welling in his eyes. He reached out, gingerly touching her hand.  
A deep gasp came from the pink haired girl, then she rolled over, coughing violently. Relief rolled through Jeremie, and the others, as she sat up, trying to catch her breath. Jeremie pated her on the back, still holding her hand. The others crowded around her, and Yumi helped her stand.  
"Well...that was interesting," she squeaked, leaning her head against Jeremie's shoulder, a hand in Yumi's.  
"You're tellin' me!" Odd broke out, grinning. "Ya know, I knew that chick wasn't our Princess the second I saw her, no girl'd hang all over our Einstein like that."  
"Oh, thanks, Odd," Jeremie muttered, as Aelita quipped wryly-  
"So you didn't know it was me while we were in Lyoko?"  
As Odd rolled his eyes, Ulrich sighed, looking nervously back at the burnt black hole in the floor where the woman had disappeared. "Who was that, anyway? XANA's...daughter? How is that possible?"  
"And how do we fight here, if she's not a clone?" Yumi glanced at Jeremie, her eyebrows raised. "Seemed solid enough." Jeremie blushed and shrugged.  
"It's hard to say. I'm guess he created her-"  
"Like Frankenstein," Aelita muttered, shuddering.  
"But with you DNA," Jeremie added, looking at her. She glanced up at him, then at her friends.  
"Then it's my job to figure out how to beat her," she said softly, pulling away from Jeremie. "It's my-" She stopped, feeling Jeremie's warm hand take her own. She turned, and looked back at him, and her friends.  
"It's our job," Jeremie said, and the others nodded.  
"It's always been our job," Ulrich added. Odd nodded, then grinned.  
"To kick Magenta's shapely as-"  
"Magenta?" Ulrich and Jeremie echoed, rolling their eyes.  
"Shapely?" Aelita and Yumi mimicked, looking at each other, looks of humor and horror on their faces.  
"What?" Odd glared at them. "It fits! All we gotta do now is-"  
"What we have to do, right now, is a return to the past," Jeremie said quickly, shaking his head.  
"And we worry about Magenta later," Aelita murmured, glancing back behind her. Jeremie squeezed her hand and met her gaze when she looked up at him.  
"We'll deal with her, Aelita. Together. She may look like you, but she's nothing but a cheap, twisted reflection."

White eyes with circled pupils narrowed as they watched the hazy image of the five teens exit the factory.  
"Cheap...hardly," came the whispered voice. Black lips twisted into a smile. "Twisted, most definitely. Father, I will not disappoint you. THe mirror will break, and she, he, and they will be come ours.  
Forever."


End file.
